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Rise of State Power
The Rise of State Power lasted from about 1204 AD until 1337 AD. It began after the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade. It then ended on the eve of the Hundred Years’ War between the two most power realms in Europe, France and England. European civilisation in the Middle Ages reached its apex in the 13th-century. Over the last three centuries, Europe enjoyed a tremendous period of growth; rapidly increasing population, economic activity, and urbanisation, as well as intellectual, spiritual and artistic works. Modern nations began to take shape, as Feudalism began a gradual decline. The French crown gradually reasserted control over the whole geographical region of France, from the tapestry of local regional lords, particularly during the reigns of Philip II Augustus and Louis IX. French culture became a glittering source of inspiration in a rapidly developing Europe. Her main rival as the most powerful European realm was England. The 12th and 13th centuries were a tumultuous period for England, from the conquest of Wales and much of Ireland, to the failed conquest of Scotland and the loss of much of her continental territories. From repeated clashes with the unruly nobles emerged what was undoubtedly the most settled system of government in Europe, based on Magna Carta. Meanwhile, the kingdoms of what would become Spain and Portugal reconquered almost only the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, leaving the Muslims clinging on in Granada in the south. Meanwhile, the revival of Europe by the 13th-century was most conspicuous in the Italian city-states. These cities were populous, prosperous, sophisticated, independent-minded, and commercialised, as well as dazzlingly cosmopolitan. These cities would eventually be the cradle of the Renaissance, an effervescence of culture unlike anything seen since the Islamic Golden Age or Classical Greece. Nevertheless, no semblance of an Italian nation could be glimpsed, nor indeed a German nation, for the Holy Roman Emperors were reduced to little more than figureheads of innumerable independent duchies, counties, and bishoprics, many of them remarkably small units. Meanwhile, at the extreme end of the Central Asian steppes, the Mongols exploded onto the world state when Genghis Khan united all the nomadic tribes for the first time. He and his successors then launched an era of conquest unparalleled in history. It blew up like a hurricane to terrify and slaughter half a dozen civilizations, including Russia, Persia and China. Europe was saved from sharing that fate, not through force of arm (European armies lost every major encounters), but through the fortunately timing of the death of the Mongol Khan. The Mongol Empire stretched from Eastern Europe to the coast of China, and extended into the heart of the Muslim world. East and West were connected as never before, under an enforce Pax Mongolica, ''allowing the dissemination and exchange of commodities, ideas, technologies, and ideologies like never before. History High Middle Ages During 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, Europe enjoyed a tremendous period of growth; rapidly increasing population; the economy reached levels that would not be seen again in some areas until the 19th century; the first developments of rural exodus and of urbanisation; and many different forms of intellectual, spiritual and artistic works. These changes in turn brought about great social and political developments. Estimates suggest that a Europe of about forty million people in the year 1000, almost doubled in size to reach a peak of perhaps seventy-three million around 1300. The explanation lies predominantly in agriculture. More food was obtained by bringing more land under cultivation and by increasing its productivity. New land was reclaimed from the gradual clearing of huge amounts of forest, as well as from marshy areas or even the sea. Agricultural practices improved: more systematic tri-annual crop-rotation; a greater variety of crops notably beans and peas; a more efficient yoke for ploughing; and more pronounced agricultural specialisation. Another innovation was the continued spread of windmills and watermills; they had been used in Europe before 1000, but with technological improvements they became more widespread and were applied to a greater variety of uses. Yet another change was the domestic spinning-wheel, which boosted the manufacture of textiles. A money economy was spreading slowly into the countryside, with the growing of more cash crops for growing markets. Some peasants benefited with serfdom going into gradual declined; this would be further accelerated by the labour shortages in the aftermath of the Black Death. Nevertheless, the increased wealth went predominantly to the landlords, who took most of the profits. With more cash crops and trade, new market towns appeared, and long established towns and cities grew bigger: Paris may have had about 200,000 inhabitants in 1340; Genoa, Venice and Florence about 100,000; London about 80,000; and Ghent 60,000. The fastest growing cities in size and prosperity were often those in areas of specialised production, such as Flanders or Tuscany both famed for fine textiles, and Bordeaux already renowned for fine wine. Ports too became major metropolitan centres of maritime trade, particularly Venice, Genoa, Bruges, and Antwerp. By 1300, all the major European cities were linked in a complicated trade network: the Italian city-states exporting salt, sugar, spices, silks and other luxuries from the East; England exporting wool; Flanders exporting fine textiles; Germany exporting timber; Russia exporting furs and beeswax; Norway exporting fish; and Southern Europe exporting wine and olive oil. For all Europe had achieved, her economic life was fragile and never far from the edge of collapse. Transport was crude with the roads having broken down since Roman times, and local famines were commonplace. A great and cumulative setback would occur in the 14th-century, with a series of widespread bad harvests particularly between 1415-17, and the great demographic disaster of the Black Death, the most devastating pandemics in human history. The building of an astonishing series of '''cathedrals' remains one of the great glories of medieval European art. The earlier dark and bulky Romanesque style was gradually superseded by Gothic architecture characterised by flying buttresses, pointed arches, and ribbed vaults. Architectural techniques were adapted to give an impression of lightness and height, with slender columns framing large windows, bringing in colour as well as light through the medium of Stained Glass. The style originated in France in the first half of the 12th century, and spread rapidly; notable examples include the Abbey of St-Denis (1135-44), Chartres (1193-1250), and most famously of all, Notre-Dame de Paris (1160-1260). It can be assumed that these virtuoso works of art had an awe-inspiring impact on medieval Europeans. Their architecture posed complex engineering problems and in solving them, the engineer was slowly to emerge from the medieval craftsman. Medieval technology was not in a modern sense science-based, but much was achieved by the accumulation of experience. But this great wave of medieval building was not only a matter of great cathedrals; the European landscape became punctuated by parish church spires rising above every little town. Perhaps even more important was the birth of a new institution for education; the universities. Bologna (1088) is generally considered to be the first university in the world, and became famous for her school of law. Others soon followed such as Paris (1150) and Oxford (1167); by 1400 there were fifty-three more. Though it could not have been foreseen, the importance of universities for the future of Europe was incalculable. Most were first founded for the training of the clergy, but soon adapted to supply servants for monarchs throughout Europe. Their lectures were given in Latin, the language of the Church and the lingua franca of educated men. Law, medicine, theology and philosophy all benefited from the new institution. Philosophy had all but disappeared into theology in the Early Middle Ages, but now European scholars could read for themselves works of classical philosophy, often made available from Islamic sources. Aristotle enjoyed unique prestige; if the Church could not make him a saint, they at least treated his work as a kind of forerunner to Christianity. Summa Theologica by the Italian philosopher Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) provided a merger of the theories of Aristotle and the Church fathers, that ultimately became Church orthodoxy for centuries to come; both the crowning achievement of medieval philosophy and a brittle synthesis of its fundamental weakness. Scholars would only begin to break free of the narrow prejudices of the Christian Church with the Reformation, paving the way for the Scientific Revolution between the 16th and 18th centuries. It would take a long time before Europe could break through the barrier that restricted creativity to Latin. Dante (d. 1321) was one of the first to write literature on a serious subject in a vernacular language, with his allegorical work, "The Divine Comedy". Other authors would increasingly follow his example: Petrarch (d. 1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (d. 1375) in Italy, and Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400) and William Langland (d. 1386) in England. Nevertheless, even the greatest of these vernacular texts could not reach a wide public audience until the printing press made large numbers of copies easily available. Rise of France The 11th-century marked the apex of feudal power in France. King Hugh Capet (987-996 AD) and his immediate successors were in truth hardly more than crowned lords, whose real authority extended little beyond the Paris basin. The realm itself was a patchwork of feudal territories, and many of the king's supposed vassals were some of the most powerful rulers of Western Europe: counts enforced the king's decrees only as they saw fit; and the king even needed permission to pass through duchies. Nonetheless, by a happy accident Hugh Capet's descendants succeeded to the French throne in an unbroken line, father-to-son without conflict, for twelves generations all the way down until 1328. This was made possible by remarkably harmonious relations within the Capetian family, especially considering the times. The younger sons and brothers of the king were granted suitable roles to maintain their rank and to dissuade them from reaching for the French crown itself. Though this stable longevity the dynasty came to be recognised an illustrious and ancient royal house, socially superior to their politically and economically superior vassals. This allowed the slow but steady extension of royal authority, until it eventually covered the whole geographical region of France, a task that would not be essentially complete until the end of the Hundred Years' War in 1453. Much progress was made under Louis VI (1108–37). For pious as well as realpolitik reasons, he was a fierce defender of the Christian Church. He encouraged French nobles and knights to go on Crusade, and gave generous patronage to several monasteries. He also frequently intervened in quarrels between counts and their local bishops, notably in Auvergne where he won the former's homage and the latter's support for a strong centralised government in France; among them, Abbot Suger of St. Denis (d. 1151), who proved one of the ablest statesmen of his day. Louis was the first French monarch to frequently use the policy of summoning his vassals to the court, with those who refused having military campaigns mounted against them; he could always rely on the Church to excommunicate the offender. None of the French king's rivals were more powerful than the Dukes of Normandy, who since the Norman conquest of England in 1066 were vassals of the French crown and the fact that they were kings in their own rights didn't change that. The journey towards a cohesive French nation was in many ways a clash between two of Europe's greatest houses, Capetian and Plantagenet. Such a struggle was not just one of warfare and politics. Through decades of judicious marriages, King Henry II of English (d. 1189) had among his hereditary possessions Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Aquitaine, and Nantes. Thus the greater part of France owes allegiance not to Paris but to Westminster. Technically the English king was the feudal vassal of the French king in these territories, but between such powerful rulers this was little more than a nicety. The complex game of feudal dynastic marriages would throw up many such anomalies, culminating in Charles V Habsburg in the 16th-century, both Germanic Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. The Capetian Dynasty greatly extended its control of France during two reigns, of grandfather and grandson, who between them ruled for a span of nearly ninety years. The grandfather was King Philip II Capet (1180-1223). Almost the entirety of his long reign was occupied with intrigue or hostility against England's continental territories. While Henry II (d. 1189) sat on the English throne, Philip skillfully played upon the bitter rivalry between Henry's sons, stirring-up rebellion against their father. The power struggle continued during the reign of Henry's successor Richard the Lionheart (d. 1199). However, Richard was no ordinary king; perhaps no statesman, but charismatic and a genius in war. Philip tried to exploit Richard's long absence on the Third Crusade to extend his territory, but once the great warrior king returned from the East, all these gains were lost. Philip had much more success against Richard's ineffectual younger brother King John of England (d. 2016). John's mismanagement of English Aquitaine led the province to erupt in rebellion, a disturbance secretly encouraged by the French king, Philip summon the English king to court as his feudal overlord. When John refused to appear, Philip used feudal pretext to confiscate all English lands north of the Loire River including Normandy; not only extending his control of France, but depriving John of easy access to the continent. In response, John spent nine years to building an anti-Philip alliance, that included German Emperor Otto IV (d. 1218), Rhine Valley petty-princes, and any French vassal that he could buy off, notably Flanders. The idea was for forces to converge on Philip from both north and south, but when the southern attack was decisively defeated at the Battle of Bouvines (July 1214), the whole campaign rapidly collapsed. Philip's victory was complete: England descended into civil war, the First Barons' War; Otto was overthrown by Frederick II; and the wealthy region of Flanders fell into the crown's hands. In addition to the former English territories and Flanders, through inheritance and intrigue Philip also attached to the French crown: Artois and Valois in the north; and much of southern France through a Crusade against the Albigensians, a radical Christian sect. Philip's son ruled for only three years, bringing to the throne the grandson, Louis IX (1226-1270), who ascended to the throne at the age of 12. Almost inevitably his minority was plagued by revolts, but his mother was an effective regent, prepared her son well for leadership, and the rest of his reign was one of comparative peace. Louis' contribution was to stablilise the newly unified France, and transform it into a truly centralised kingdom. It was a task for which he was well suited. His reputation among his contemporaries for fairness, wisdom, and piety, which allowed him to rule as absolutely as he wished. A measure of this reputation is that the English accepted Louis as arbitrator in the Second Barons' Revolt between Henry III of England (d. 1272) and his nobles. Throughout his long reign, Louis worked tirelessly to bring his most powerful nobles to heel, by cracking-down on their private wars that had long plagued the country, and by granting royal privileges and liberties to towns and cities throughout the realm further weakening the nobility. He even established quite cordial relations with the Plantagenet kings, after an attempt by Henry III to reclaim his lost territories was defeated in 1242. Louis ran an honest and efficient justice system: royal officials were empowered to travel throughout the realm investigating complaints about local officials; antiquated practices such as trial by ordeal were banned; the presumption of innocence was introduced to criminal procedure; and the right of appeal to the crown encouraged. Louis' piety was also very much in the spirit of the time; after his death he was canonised, the only French king to be declared a saint. He created one of the most spectacular late Gothic churches, the royal chapel of Sainte Chapelle, which has one of the finest stained glass collections anywhere in the world; the design was highly influential and widely copied. And he took an active part in the Seventh and Eighth Crusades, dying in Tunisia during the second expedition. Louis' successors presided over the most powerful kingdom in a rapidly developing Europe; her main rival England had less than a third of her population. French culture was also a glittering source of inspiration throughout Europe. She was the home of what was still the most significant monastic order, Cluny, though new innovations where now happening all the time, such as the founding of the Cistercians in France, and the Franciscans and Dominicans in Italy. In intellectual matters, Paris had a commanding reputation by the 12th century, through schools attached to the cathedral of Notre Dame and other monasteries in the city. In 1231, Pope Gregory IX (d. 1241) licenced Sorbonne University as an independent institution, and it soon became Europe's most famous centre of learning; Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) taught there from 1257, the Church's greatest medieval theologian and philosopher. France enjoyed a similar lead in artistic fields. Paris was the birthplace of Gothic architecture, and many of the greatest examples of cathedrals were in French cities. Pioneering developments in sculpture and stained glass formed part of the same burst of creativity. Meanwhile, French literature invented and elaborated on the medieval theme of romance, in epic poems such as the Chansons de Geste and in the troubadours of Provence. The most significant reign of Louis' immediate successors was that of King Philip IV (1285-1314). Intelligent and ambitious, he relied on a group of very talented civil servants to govern the realm rather than nobles, bringing centralised power to the strongest level it would attain in the Middle Ages. Wanting an uncontested monarchy with compliant vassals, he provoked wars with both the English kings who were still his vassal as Duke of Aquitaine, as well as with ever-independent Flanders. Both campaigns were relatively successful, though they strained the resources and patience of his subjects as Europe edge towards a period of crisis, famines and plague. The peace treaty that settled matters with England included the marriage of Philip's daughter to the future Edward II of England. The result was years of peace between the two kingdoms, although it would also produce an eventual English claimant to the French throne itself, and ultimately the Hundred Years' War. Meanwhile, the most notable conflicts of Philip's reign was with Pope Boniface VIII. This was in many ways the culmination of the protracted medieval power struggle between Church and state, that had begun in imperial Germany with the Investiture Controversy of 1076, and continued with the Crusades and the Thomas Becket controversy in England. Hostilities between France and England had interfered with papal plans for another Crusade to the Holy Lands, and Boniface became increasingly belligerent. Philip and Boniface first clashed in 1296 over a kings right to levy taxes on the clergy in his realm, though the Pope was eventually forced to retreat when Philip responded with retaliatory measures. The feud reached its peak in 1302 when Philip arrested and convicted a bishop on charges of inciting a revolt; he was the bishop of the last strongholds of the heretical Cathar sect. From here, a series of escalating decrees and letters culminated in Philip convening an assembly of bishops, nobles and grand bourgeois of Paris in order to condemn the Pope; incidentally the first meeting of what would become the French parliament (Estates General). Boniface retaliated by issuing the celebrated Unam Sanctam ''(1302) papal bull, one of the most extreme statements of papal supremacy ever made. In September 1303, the Pope was on the verge of excommunicating King Philip himself, when French envoys, already in Italy working to undermine the Boniface, took a bold step; they abducted the Pope. Pope Boniface was held prisoner for three days before being released; the aging Pope died a month later, doubtless from the shock. The episode severely dented the prestige of the papacy; no subsequent Pope would repeat such claims of papal supremacy. In contrast, Philip's power seemed enhanced. For much of the 14th century, French kings appeared to have the papacy in their pocket, almost literally. There were seven French Popes in an unbroken succession spanning seventy-three years. From 1309 these Popes were based not in Rome but on French soil, at Avignon; the original reason was in the hope of negotiating an end to hostilities between France and England in preparations for a Crusade. A few years later in 1312, Philip even forced the Pope to comply with his wishes to destroy the great order of the Knights Templars, to whom he was deeply indebted. This situation would eventually lead to the Great Papal Schism, in which for nearly four decades Europe had two Popes, occasionally three. By the end of Philip’s reign, France was unmistakably the heart of Europe. But just two decades later the early death of Philip's son Charles IV would usher in the first succession crisis in France for over three centuries, and set her on the path to the Hundred Years' War. Britain of the Plantagenets In the midst of the Crusading Age, the long-standing English habit of competition for the throne continued, and an equally enduring tendency of bickering between the royals and Church. The direct line of William the Conquerors lasted only his two sons. When the only legitimate heir of Henry I Normandy (1100-1135 AD) died in the shipwreck of the White Ship in 1120, the line of succession was thrown into doubt. Henry's solution was to compel the Anglo-Norman barons and senior clergy into recognising his daughter Maude (d. 1152) as heir. But no one was particularly enthusiastic about accepting Maude as queen; no woman had ever ruled in her own right in either England or Normandy. Her husband was Count Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou (d. 1151), a region in west-central France with a long history of rivalry with Normandy. Furthermore, she was the widow of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V (d. 1125), and had rather autocratic views on monarchy. On Henry death, many rivals sought to claim the English throne, but a nephew Stephen of Blois moved fastest, immediately crossing to England and within a month having himself crowned '''King Stephen' (1135-1154) in Westminster Abbey. The entirety of his reign would be consumed by a bitter civil war with Maude; The Anarchy '''(1135-54). In the early years of his reign, Stephen faced several minor revolts as well as opportunistic Welsh and Scottish incursions. The situation escalated in 1138 into a major rebellion in south-western England, under Maude's half-brother Robert of Gloucester (d. 1147). Most of the nobility remained loyal to Stephen until he was defeated and captured at the Battle of Lincoln (February 1141). As Stephen's followers abandoned him, Maude was all set to be crowned queen, when Robert of Gloucester was himself captured at a rout in Winchester. As Maude's main military commander, she had little option but to agree to swap captives. Thus the civil war dragged on for many more years, becoming a desultory affair where neither side could secure an advantage. Meanwhile the country descended into anarchy with barons across the realm taking the opportunity to settle old scores and expand their own power-bases. By the early 1150s, both the barons and Church mostly just wanted peace, and pressurised Stephen to the negotiation table. In 1153, an accommodation was finally reached whereby Stephen would retain the throne, but recognised as his heir Maude's son, Henry Plantagenet, in the process passing over his own natural son. '''Henry II Plantagenet (1154-1189) was an energetic and sometimes ruthless ruler, driven by a desire to reassert royal authority over England, which had fallen in a state of chaotic lawlessness after the years of civil war. His success in this aim is the measure of his greatness. His first task was to demolish a swath of unauthorised castles that now dotted the realm, built by unruly nobles. Next, he restored, and in many ways improved upon, the standards of administration of his Norman predecessors: strengthening the powers of circuit judges in maintaining the law; settling land disputes through the judgement of 12 knights, a forerunner of trial by jury; encouraging cases to appear before royal courts rather than private feudal courts; and organising government into more formalised and professional ministries. All these measures continued the subtle shift away from feudalism, and towards a centralised English nation state. But England was just one part of his vast realm, could justifiably be called an empire. Through his own inheritance in northern France and that of his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (d. 1204), the greater part of France owes allegiance not to Paris but to Westminster. His continental lands came under considerable pressure from the machinations of King Philip II of France (d. 1223), but by the end of Henry's reign they remained intact. Meanwhile, Henry had eight legitimate children and in order to provide lands for his younger sons, he gave his backing to the Norman conquest of Ireland (1169-1175); the beginning of "800 years of English rule in Ireland." Ever since the Investiture Crisis of 1076, the power struggle between Church and state was one of the great issues of the day throughout Europe. Henry conceived what must have seemed at the time a neat solution to the problem; he appointed his trusted friend Thomas Becket (d. 1170) as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. If he anticipated a compliant archbishop, he was quickly disabused. Becket vigorously defends ecclesiastical privileges, particularly Henry's insistence that legal cases against clergy must be judged by the royal court just like cases against anyone else. The quarrel escalated to the point that Becket was forced to flee the country in 1164 to safety in a monastery near Paris. But it didn't end the squabbling. Henry harassed Becket's associates in England, and Becket excommunicated clerics who sided with the king. By 1170, the whole Becket controversy was an international embarrassment for Henry, and he took a more conciliatory tone, and Becket was allowed to return to England in early December. But Becket still refused to reinstate the bishops he had suspended. News of this prompted Henry to ask a careless and fatal question: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Four knights provided a literal answer. On 29 December 1170, they murdered Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The public and international outrage that followed made Becket a martyr and his tomb one of Europe's most popular pilgrimage sites; he was canonised a saint in 1173. Henry ultimately had little option but to do humiliating public penance at Becket's shrine, and concede on all his points on ecclesiastical control, at least in the short term; with Becket out of the way, it later proved possible to negotiate most of issues between Church and state. Henry's son, Richard the Lionheart (1189–99), has left an indelible imprint on the English imagination as the ideal of a medieval warrior king. He spent almost the whole of his reign on military campaigns, at which he was a genius. Perhaps wanting to make amends for his father's treatment of the Church, he was one of the leaders of the Third Crusade to the Holy Lands. The rest of his reign was spent successfully defending his lands in France. But warfare was expensive, and there was the additional cost of Richard's ransom, when he was captured on his journey home from the East. Richard drained the treasury, placed an onerous tax burden on his subjects, and in his absence the country again fell into disorder. According to legend, it was during this time that Robin Hood hid in Sherwood Forest and engaged in a spot of wealth redistribution. Thus a very difficult legacy was left for his successor and brother, King John Plantagenet (1199-1216). During his reign, the three problems lurking at the heart of the English monarchy came to a head: what were the limits on royal power when it came to taxation; how did succession to the throne work; and what was the balance of power between the king, his nobles, and the church. John had none of the military ability of his brother, and by 1206, King Philip II of France (d. 1223) had used feudal pretext to confiscate all England's continental lands north of the Loire River, including Normandy. At least Richard had imposed a harsh tax burden on his subjects for successful wars. Then John's authority was further weakened when he got embroiled in a protracted quarrel with Pope Innocent III (d. 1216) over his right to select the Archbishop of Canterbury, during which he was excommunication for four years. The discontent of his barons was reaching dangerous levels, and in June 1215 John agreed to meet with his rebellious vassals at Runnymede, near Windsor Castle. With the Archbishop of Canterbury acting as a arbitrator, he fixed the royal seal to a peace treaty that later became known as Magna Carta. The charter went beyond simply addressing specific baronial complaints, and attempted to codify the rights and obligations of feudal society including the limits of royal power; it promised new taxation only with the consent of a council of twenty-five barons; protection from illegal imprisonment and swift access to justice; and the protection of Church rights. John however refused to comply with its conditions, claiming to have accepted the document under duress. The First Barons' War (1215-17) broke out shortly afterwards, which soon descended into a stalemate. John's death and the ascension of his nine-year-old son Henry III Plantagenet (1216–1272) brought a pause in hostilities, during which more moderate council prevailed. During Henry's minority, rather than a regent, there was a council made up of barons and bishops, which, despite incessant factional disputes, brought a much needed period of peace and stability. As he grew up, Henry III very much learned to do what he was told, a characteristic that would pretty much defined him as a king. Unfortunately for the barons, they would not always be the ones telling him what to do. Henry's wife, Eleanor of Provence (d. 1291), found it all too easy to manipulate him in order to promote the interests of her own family. As the popularity of Henry's rule plummeted, from about 1238 the councils of barons at the royal court became increasingly regular and acrimonious; the term parliament, from the French parler meaning "to speak", was increasingly being applied to such large gatherings throughout Western Europe. The catalyst for the escalation of this tense situation was a charming, ambitious, and morally flexible minor Anglo-French nobleman called Simon de Montfort (d. 1265). Montfort became a favourite of the impressionable Henry, and eventually married his daughter to become the Earl of Leicester. Within a few short years, he would transformed himself into a proper English nobleman and lead the barons in the next phase of their conflict with the king. WhenHenry desperately needed to introduce new taxes in order to balance the royal finances, and the barons forced him to accepted further curtailment of the royal power known as the Provisions of Oxford (1258): it created a privy council of fifteen-member selected by the nobles, to advise the king and oversee the entire administration; and obliged the English parliament to be held three times a year. Like his father, Henry rapidly backtracks on his commitment, prompting another outbreak of civil war, the Second Barons' Revolt (1264-1267). In a brilliant engagement at the Battle of Lewes (1264), Simon de Montfort and the rebel barons won a resounding victory against a larger royal army, in the process capturing both Henry and his eldest son, the future Edward Longshanks. For a year, Montfort effectively took control of the county as leader of the privy council. Attempting to garner wider support for his new form of government, in 1265 he summoned a parliament in London, at which not only barons and bishops attended, but representatives from every towns and two knights from every county; the roots of today's House of Commons which would become the more powerful of the two houses of parliament. These hints of a democratic future did not save Montfort. His enemies contrived to help Prince Edward escape captivity. At just twenty-six, Edward was already a formidable military commander. He rallied the royalist supporters, defeated and killed Montfort at the Battle of Evesham (1265), and restored his father to the throne. In the midst of all this political turmoil in England, the 13th century had seen a steady rise of population, growing prosperity in the towns, and the early development of English universities at Oxford and Cambridge. The loss of England's continental possessions had in fact helped focused the attention of the monarchy on England in a way that had not happened since 1066. There slowly began to emerge a much clearer English identity; for the first time the French were increasingly described as foreigners. This was particularly notable during the reign of Edward I '''Plantagenet (1272-1307 AD), the first king to habitually speak English since the Norman conquest. Nicknamed Edward Longshanks due to his great height, his thirty-five year reign contained many seminal moments in English history. He was in many ways the ideal medieval king, even more than Richard the Lionheart; a gifted military leader who also enjoyed statecraft. Edward willingly confirmed all existing charters including Magna Carta, delegated much of the business of government to his privy council, and summoned parliaments on a reasonably regular basis, helping to establish it as a permanent institution. To some of these assemblies he continued Montfort's innovation of inviting representatives from the towns and counties, especially when he had pressing need for funds and wanted taxes to be widely accepted. Edward was notable for his canny use of the gradually evolving parliament, in 1275 negotiating a tax on the export of wool that set his reign on a secure financial basis. Another source of royal income was the exploitation of England's Jewish community; after first impoverishing the Jews, they formally were expelled from the country in 1290, a practice increasingly common throughout Europe in the 13th century. Thus England now had something like a settled system of government, which helped maintain stability in the realm throughout his reign. Edward had his own reasons for wanting a stable government; his main interest in life was warfare, and he would spend much of his reign on military campaign in Wales and Scotland. The division between Anglo-Saxon England and Celtic '''Wales had been formalised in the 8th century by the digging of Offa's Dyke. Somewhat similar to Ireland, Wales remained a patchwork of petty-kingdoms often at war with one another, forever merging through the usual process of warfare and marriage, and moving towards centralised rule only for it to soon dissipate again. From time to time a leader would emerge with something approaching hegemony over all Wales, such as Rhodri Mawr (d. 878), but it never lasted more than a generation. When the Normans claimed England in 1066, William the Conqueror set up feudal barons along the Welsh border to secure his kingdom, the Marcher Lords. The area of the March varied as the fortunes of the Marcher Lords and the Welsh princelings ebbed and flowed. Sometimes rulers like Rhys ap Gruffydd (d. 1197), of Deheubarth in the south, were powerful enough to reach an accommodation with the English that brought a peace to the region for a while. Another was Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (d. 1282), of Gwynedd in the north-west, to who all the Welsh kingdoms paid homage; he adopted the title "Prince of Wales", because the term "king" had become devalued. In 1267, he forced Henry III to recognise him as such, in return for a ill-defined recognition of the English crown as overlord. But this was the peak of national dignity for medieval Wales. Edward Longshanks had very different views on Llywelyn's claims in Wales. For his part, Llywelyn seemed to almost go out of his way to provocation Edward: he refused a summons to do homage in 1275; and married the daughter of Simon de Montfort, who had briefly usurped his father. In 1277 Edward moved decisively against the Welsh upstart. Two English armies converged on Wales: one in the south to seize the harvest; and one in the north, marching on Gwynedd itself. Llywelyn was soon forced to accept the harsh Treaty of Aberconwy (1277): he retained only the western half of Gwynedd; and the rest of Wales would now to be administered by the English. The English agents fulfilled their role with such brutality that in 1282 it provoked a widespread Welsh uprising, headed by Llywelyn. Edward responded as forcefully as before, with another invasion of Wales, this time a full-scale war of conquest. Llywelyn was killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge (December 1282), and conquest was completed with the capture of his son Dafydd in June 1283. The subjugation of Wales was emphasised by the granting of the title of Prince of Wales to Edward's eldest son, and by the construction of a series of imposing castles, which are still the glory of the northwest coast of Wales. Overawed by these clenched stone fists, Wales remained relatively quiet for a century, until there was one last attempt to keep the dream of Welsh independence alive by Owain Glyn Dwr. Trouble with the kingdom of Scotland flared up shortly after Edward suppressed the Welsh. The end of any medieval dynasty was always an invitation to chaos. The death of the last of the MacAlpin kings of Scotland in 1034 had prompted a protracted civil war for the crown; made famous by Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Malcolm III Dunkeld (1058−93), who emerged from this struggle, founded a dynasty of some of Scotland's ablest rulers. They adopted many aspects of the Anglo-Norman systems of government, and introduced the first recorded Scottish coinage. Meanwhile relations between the Scottish kings and their Norman neighbours were complex. For several generations, nobles of Scotland and England intermarried, and many families had lands on both sides of the border. Yet, the border between the two kingdoms was a region of almost constant warfare. The two kings themselves vied within an uneasy and ill-defined feudal relationship in which neither side prevailed, until matters were brought to a head by another vacancy on the Scottish throne. In 1286 Alexander III Dunkeld died, leaving only an infant granddaughter as heir. King Edward I of England immediately set about arranging her marriage to his own infant son, the future Edward II, intenting that the bridegroom would rule over both kingdoms. However the young queen died in 1290, before matters could be arranged. This left some 13 potential claimants for the Scottish throne. With the risk of civil war, the Scottish nobles agreed to allow Edward to arbitrate. Between the two strongest claimants, his choice of John Balliol (1292-96) received widespread assent. However, over the next few years Edward used the concessions he had gained to systematically undermine both the authority of King John and the independence of Scotland. Scottish resentment was expressed in 1295 when they formed an alliance with France, ushering in both the enduring Auld Alliance (1295-1560) and the First War of Scottish Independence (1296-1328). Edward’s invasion of Scotland in 1296 was swift and brutally effective. Within a few months, King Balliol was a prisoner in the Tower of London, and the sacred Scottish coronation seat, the Stone of Scone, traveled south to a new home in Westminster Abbey; it would remain there until 1996. Scotland was humiliated, but only briefly. Seriously short of funds, Edward was not able to follow-up his conquest with the building of costly castles, as he had done in Wales. Enter arguably Scotland’s most tragic hero. An uprising erupted in Scotland in early 1297, led by among others the minor nobleman William Wallace (d. 1305). When Edward sent more forces north, the Scots confronted them at the Battle of Sterling Bridge (September 1297). Although vastly outnumbered, Wallace held back his troops and enticed the English across the narrow bridge over the River Forth, and attacked when about half were across; nearly all the English on the northern bank were either slaughtered or drowned. This victory enabled Wallace to briefly rule Scotland as Guardian of Scotland, on behalf of the imprisoned John Balliol. The situation brought Edward north in person in 1298, and at the Battle of Falkirk (July 1298), he avenged the humiliation of Stirling. English and Welsh archers inflicted devastating casualties on the massed ranks of Scottish spearmen, in an early example of the power of the longbow, half a century before its more famous deployment at Crécy. Wallace himself survived but resigned as guardian, and vanished from history for several years, until his betrayal and capture in 1305, when he was hung-drawn-and-quartered at the Tower of London. Edward continued campaigning in Scotland, and with his capture of Stirling Castle, the last major rebel stronghold, Scotland seemed to have been finally conquered. But in 1306, Robert the Bruce (1306-29), the son of one of the claimants rejected by Edward in 1292, made his own grab for power. John Comyn was a natural rival of Bruce's with perhaps a slightly better claim to the Scottish throne. In February 1306, Bruce killed him at the Greyfriars church in Dumfries, perhaps in a quarrel, perhaps premeditated. Afterwards, Bruce quickly consolidated his position, and had himself crowned King of Scotland, with most of the Scottish nobles rallied behind him. Open hostilities resumed, with the English once again winning the initial encounters. Bruce was briefly forced into hiding, but soon raliled and resumed a successful guerilla campaign against the English. With each minor victory, notably the Battle of Glen Trool (April 1307), more and more Scots flocked to his banner. They were further encouraged by news of the death of Edward I in July 1307. Under the weak and ineffectual Edward II of England (d. 1327), Bruce's success continued, capturing one English stronghold after another. With the key English stronghold of Sterling Castle under siege, Edward finally personally led a large army north to 1314. At the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), Bruce showed that he had developed into a brilliant military commander. He chose his ground well, a narrow front in a boggy area about two miles south of Stirling. Unusually for a medieval battle, Bannockburn took place over two days. On the opening day, the English tried to force they way onto the high ground but were repulsed; famously Bruce was briefly caught in the open but killed a renowned English knight in single combat. Thus in the battle proper the next day, the English were hemmed-in by boggy turf and rivers, and were thrown into utter disarray by the aggressive tactics of the Scots. This victory essentially established Scottish independence. In the years after Bannockburn, Robert continually raided south across the border into England, and in 1315 opened a new front in the war, sending his brother Edward Bruce to stir-up rebellion in Ireland. Edward II marched north again twice with large armies in 1319 and in 1322, but achieved little. By 1328, the English were ready to come to terms, with Scottish independence formally acknowledged in the Treaty of Northampton (1328). But the English instinct to meddle in Scottish affairs proved hard to resist; the Second War of Scottish Independence (1332-57). When Robert the Bruce died, bringing his five year old son David II (1329-1371) to the throne, they encouraged a son of John Balliol to stake his own claim for his father's throne. When that failed, the English invaded themselves in 1333 with considerable success. But soon the English were distracted by the Hundred Years War (1337-1490) and David had drriven them out of Scotland by 1341. He went further, invading northern England in accordance with his French allies and the Auld Alliance. There he was defeated and captured at the Battle of Neville's Cross (October 1346), and spent a decade imprisoned in London. But he was eventually ransomed back, when the English were desperately short of funds, and Scotland's independence was finally secured. Meanwhile in England, during the weak and ineffectual reign of Edward II (1307-1327) the unruly mood of the nobles returned. The central theme of his reign was violent factionalism to control the impressionable king. The early part of his reign was dominated by Thomas Earl of Lancaster (d. 1322), who for a time united the barons in opposition to the king's unsuitable favourites, particularly Piers Gaveston (d. 1312), widely assumed to have been Edward's homosexual lover. Parliament twice succeeded having the young man banished from the kingdom, but each time he was recalled, until the barons conspired to murder him in 1312. Lancaster kept a tight rein on royal expenses, with widespread famine effecting much of Europe from 1315. But Edward eventually turned on them, with the help of a faction led by Hugh le Despenser (d. 1326). Despenser took over control of the realm, and habitually used his position to enrich his own family, which made Edward's rule increasingly unpopular, not least with his own wife. In 1326, Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer raised a rebellion against Edward, and forced him to renounce the throne in favour of their fifteen-year-old son, Edward III (1327-77); Edward II would die in captivity less than a year later, almost certainly murdered, according to the gory rumour by skewering with a red-hot poker. For four years, Mortimer and Isabella ruled in the young king's name, but in 1330 Edward III declared his independence in a most forceful manner. With a small band of trusted men, he took Mortimer by surprise at Nottingham Castle and had him executed. So England had a strong king once again, and during his long reign, spanning half a century, Edward III contrived to rule without any major confrontation with the barons, in part thanks to a shared cause; the Hundred Years' War. Norman conquest Ireland "800 years of English rule in Ireland" began during the reign of King Henry II of England (d. 1189). Gaelic Ireland had a long tradition of the concept of national kingship, a High King who sat at Tara, supposedly dating back to Niall Noígíallach (d. 405) in the 4th century. But only Brian Boru in the 11th century had briefly come close to making it a political reality. It was a land of constantly shifting petty-kingdoms, all of whom nominally paid allegiance to several regional over-kingdoms. The journey to the Norman conquest of Ireland (1169-1175) began with Diarmait Mac Murchada (d. 1171), the cruel and ruthless regional-king of the eastern province of Leinster. Diarmait made enemies of most of the other regional-regional kings, who united in 1166 and ousted him. A desperate dispossessed ruler seeking the help of a powerful ally is hardly unusual in history, but Diarmait's decision to appeal to King Henry II of England would change forever the destiny of Ireland. Henry had contemplated conquering Ireland long before Diarmait visited his court, in order to provide lands for the younger of his eight children. Another initiative for invasion came from the Catholic Church which wanted to bring the Celtic Church to heel, since it was resistant to recent reforms such as clerical celibacy; Pope Adrian IV (d. 1159) granted a Papal Bull in 1155 authorising the conquest. With Henry's backing, an Anglo-Norman army landed in Ireland near Wexford in May 1169, led by Richard de Clare (d. 1176), better known as Strongbow. The coordinated Norman heavy cavalry proved irresistible, and they quickly reconquered Leinster for Diarmait. In return Strongbow married Diarmait's daughter and became heir to Leinster. Diarmait's death a few months later removed the last impediment to yet another great Norman land-grab, as had happened in southern Italy and indeed England itself. Henry II himself visited Ireland in 1171, as much to establish control over his independent-minded vassals, as to campaign against the Gaelic Irish. Four years later the Treaty of Windsor (1175) was agreed with the Gaelic petty-kingdoms, confirming the Norman conquest, acknowledging its limits to Leinster, and establishing the English king as the ill-defined overlord of the whole island. But it meant little to the Anglo-Normans, who continued to expand their territories over the subsequent decades, against occasional native Irish counter-offensives. Anglo-Norman rule in Ireland reached its high point in the 13th-century, culminating in the establishment of an Irish Parliament in 1297, paralleling that of its English counterpart. By this time, Norman settlements were to be found throughout much of the country, characterised by baronies, castles, and feudal law. But the fragility of English rule in Ireland would be exposed by outside events. The first was the arrival in Ireland in 1315 of a Scottish army some 6000 strong, led by Edward Bruce (d. 1318), brother of Robert the Bruce (d. 1329). A year after Bannockburn (1315), Robert sought to open a new front in the Scottish War of Independence; and no doubt to rid himself of his troublesome brother. Edward quickly rallied most of the Gaelic-Irish and even a few Anglo-Normans to his cause of ridding the island of their English overlord. The brief uprising came to an end at the Battle of Faughart (October 1318) where Edward was defeat and killed, but in the chaos the Gaelic Irish had reclaimed great swathes of land from the Normans, that would never be recovered. But the worst disaster of all arrived in Dublin in July 1348, the Black Death. The plague ravaged the towns and ports of the Normans, much more than the sparsely-populated native Irish territories. As the Gaelic lord exploited English weakness, all of Ulster, Connaught, and the midlands were recovered by the end of the 14th century, leaving the Normans increasingly restricted to the south and east. This was paralleled by a remarkable revival of Gaelic Irish language, culture, and customs that once again came to dominate the island. The Norman lords may have pledged allegiance to the English king, but in truth they were loyal only to themselves. They became just another power in a patchwork of petty-kingdoms. And gradually the cultural distinctiveness began to evaporate, as the Normans assimilated with Irish society, becoming as one chronicler famously noted, "more Irish than the Irish themselves." From 1367, the parliament in Ireland tries to separate Gaelic and Anglo-Norman by law, banning Irish dress and intermarriage, but it had little effect. With the English crown distracted by the Hundred Years' War, Ireland was simply not a strategic priority. But things dramatically changed with the War of the Roses in the later 15th-century. Normans Ireland tended to support the losing side in the civil war, the House of York, and then two pretenders to the English throne launched their bids against Henry VII Tudor from Ireland. The ascent to the throne of a new king in 1509 would being about the most concerted attempt yet to subdue Ireland; Henry VIII Tudor. Spanish Reconquest The Christian kingdoms of northern Spain squabbled with one another other as often as they fought against the Muslims. During the 11th and 12th centuries, they went through a bewildering series of merges and divisions, from which finally emerged four stable kingdoms: Aragon, Castile, Navarre and Portugal. The Christians continued to nibble away at Muslim Spain: the stronghold of Zaragoza fell in 1118, and Portugal in 1147 with the unexpected help of some passing English knights on their way to the Second Crusade. The decisive phase of the Christian reconquest of Spain began with a defeat. When the Almohad Sultanate (1147–1269), another Moorish dynasty from North Africa with a strict interpretation of Islam, wrestled control of Spain from the Almoravids, it brought about a resurgence in Muslim power. At the Battle of Alarcos (1195), the king of Castile suffer a terrible defeat and lost a number of castles guarding the road to Toledo. This prompted the Christian kingdoms to acknowledge that the Almohads threatened them all, and end their incessant infighting in a series of treaties. Seventeen years later, when there was another Muslim offensive, all four kingdoms joined forces and won a crushing victory at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212). It proved the decisive turning point in the Reconquista. The defeat didn't prompt the immediate collapse of the Almohads, but when the Caliph died without an heir twelve years later, they went into precipitous decline. The Muslims found themselves helpless before a renewed Christian thrust to the south: Cordoba fell in 1236, Valencia in 1238, and Seville in 1248. Now only the southern tip of the peninsula remained in Muslim hands as the Emirate of Granada (1230-1492). The high mountains of the Sierra Nevada made the region difficult to conquer, and the Emir was able to make a treaty of mutual coexistence with Castile, in return for the payment of a large annual tribute. This tribute became important to Castile's finances, so Granada was left relatively free to enjoy a civilised existence for more than two centuries. The final flowering of the Muslim culture of Spain can be seen in the glorious palace fortress of Alhambra completed in 1358; its restful courtyards of Moorish arches and playful fountains now seem the epitome of Muslim civilisation in Spain. This Muslim enclave was nevertheless an affront to the conscience of Castile, and Granada would eventually be conquered in 1492. Fragmentation of Germany During the 12th and 13th centuries, while France, England, Spain, and Portugal were developing strong centralised monarchies, the Germanic Holy Roman Empire slowly moved in the opposite direction towards political fragmentation. Many factors weakened the cohesion of imperial Germany. One was the paradox of an elected feudal overlord, which dated back to the foundation of the empire in the early 10th century. Unlike the monarchy in say France and England, the Holy Roman Emperor was elected in a vote by great regional magnates. Thus the emperor's authority rested not on conquest or inheritance, but on a network of negotiated alliances to keep voters on side; in the brutal reality of feudal politics this meant concessions. Another factor sapping imperial authority was the struggles between the emperors and Popes, which began with the Investiture Controversy under Henry IV Salian (1056-1105), and continued periodically seemingly without end. The Hohenstaufen Dynasty (1338-1254) provided a number of notably strong emperors, but also further exacerbated the underlying issues by their rivalry with another great German family, the House of Welf. The bitter rivalry reached its height under Frederick Barbarossa Hohenstaufen (1165-97), who with considerable justification blamed on his cousins for the failed attempt to reassert control over northern Italy from the city-states In 1176. His son, Henry VI Hohenstaufen (1165-97), then inherited through his wife the strategically important region of Norman southern Italy and Sicily in 1194. This both added an unwieldy extension to the empire and further antagonised the papacy, alarmed at the danger of being surrounded by imperial territory. The quarrels with the Popes were at their most intense during the reign of Frederick II Hohenstaufen (1220-50), who was excommunicated no less than four times and even at one point even labelled the "Antichrist". Frederick II spent much of his reign in southern Italy, where he established the most efficient centralised government and bureaucracy of the day. However, in order to focus of his Italian project, he granted extensive concessions to the German princes, fatally undermining the political position of his successors. When Frederick's short-lived son died in 1254, the German magnates failed to agree on a new emperor for two decades until 1273. For the next century, the electors granted the imperial crown to several different families. By the time another stable dynasty was established, the House of Luxembourg (1346-1437), the Holy Roman Empire had lost any true political meaning, a title valued only for its prestige. The Holy Roman Empire fragmented into innumerable duchies, counties, and bishoprics, many of them remarkably small units, little more than city-states similar to their contemporaries in Italy. A document of 1422 listed seventy-five free German cities including: Aachen, Cologne, Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Regensburg, Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm. Political unity may have failed in imperial Germany, but the energies of the German people remained potent. Her various states were inclined to group together in trading networks, the greatest of which was the Hanseatic League. Founded in the late 12th-century, for three centuries it effectively dominated the long-distant maritime trade along the coasts of Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea, stretching as far afield as Iceland and Spain. In the south, the Great Ravensburg Trading Society served a similar function, making its name all over Europe first in operating paper mills and then extending its business into other areas. Meanwhile, Germany continued to slow and steady push eastwards into the less developed and heavily forested lands of the Slavs and Prussians. This process had been ongoing since the 11th century, usually achieved first by peasant colonists chartering new towns and villages, and then by the granting of feudal rights and bishoprics in newly occupied territories. By these means the ancient German duchies expanded: Swabia absorbed much of what is now Switzerland; and Bavaria extended spasmodically over Austria. Only the pagan Prussians provided significant resistance to absolution into imperial Germany, at least until the arrival of the Teutonic Knights in 1226. The Holy Roman Empire deserves more than the glib assessment of Voltaire, "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire". Her emperor were indeed weak, but they were still recognised and respected as a distant overlord, sometimes appealed to for neutral justice. Within its borders there remained a strong sense of Germans being part of a shared cultural and loose political community. But Germany did ceased to be a major influence on European history, until the rise of the Austrian House of Habsburgs in the 15th-century, who from 1415 made the title of Holy Roman Emperor essentially hereditary. They were undoubtedly a power in European politics, and almost unrivalled in imperial Germany, until the rise of Prussia in the 17th century. Princely Rule in Italy The revival of Europe by the 13th-century was most conspicuous in Italy. Through the combined effects of the fragmentation of the Muslim world, the decline of the Byzantine Empire, and the Crusading Age, the Mediterranean was once again an "Italian Lake", dominated by the far-flung trade networks of the maritime republics of Venice, Genoa and Pisa, who monopolised trade from the East. The inland city-states of Florence and Milan became prosperous commercial and industrial centres too. The Italy city-states would play a crucial role in the development of European civilisation, especially banking and financial services. Until the 12th century, the limited banking that existed in Europe was dominated by the Jewish community. Jews had long been forbidden from owning land in most parts of Europe, but carved out a useful niche for themselves as money-lenders; Christians were forbidden from charging interest by the Church due to the sin of usury. Through the commercial activities of medieval Italians, merchant banks gradually emerged from financing international trade on one's own behalf, to settling trades for others; creative accountancy enabled them to avoid the sin of usury. Other financial skills followed - bills of exchange, foreign exchange contract, double-entry book-keeping, and limited liability - and with them we are at the edge of modern capitalism. Venice, Milan, and Genoa all profited from this new trade, but Florence took the lion's share. Her gold coin, the Florin, first minted in 1252, was widely recognised and trusted throughout Europe; the reserve currency of its day. Commercial rivalry and warfare between the city-states were long and bewildering, with alliances always in flux. In the Western Mediterranean, the rivalry between Pisa and Genoa eventually culminated in the Battle of Meloria (1284), which marked the beginning of the decline of Pisa. Genoa came to dominate the whole Mediterranean for much of the 13th-century, between her victory over Venice at the Battle of Curzola (1298) and subsequent defeat in Battle of Chioggia (1380). Warfare on land was equally common. In this, the Italians preferred to employ foreign mercenary companies to fight their battles. One of the first was the Great Company, first led by the German knight Werner von Urslingen (d. 1354), and numbering some 7,000 heavy cavalry and 1,500 infantry. Engagements between these armies were often elaborate rituals, in which little harm was done except to the pockets of their employers. Such mercenary companies would gradually die-out by the late 15th century, as mounted knights became relics of a medieval past, with the change in the art of war to professional infantry, longbowmen, and artillery, notably during the Hundred Years' War. By the late 14th-century, Venice, Florence, and Milan had emerged as the dominant regional powers, absorbing their neighbours: Venice again dominated the Mediterranean with the widest international trade network; the prosperity of Florence was based on the textile trade and finance; and Milan had extended her territory turning her from a city-state into a minor European power. The government of these city-states went through many iterations. In the early years of every male citizen was able participate in government through assemblies, but this glimmer of democracy was soon extinguished in favour of oligarchies, first of the nobility of the city, and then increasingly the richest merchants and bankers. These well-heeled families turned their attentions from business rivalry to bitter political feuding. The practical solution to this often lethal factionalism was the appointment of a powerful chief executive. By the end of the 12th century, nearly all the north Italian cities had appointed a powerful mayor or Podestà to run the city's affairs; usually a nobleman from another city who was appointed for a fixed term, rarely more than a year. However, once the mechanism for individual rule was in place, a more permanent and even perhaps hereditary princely ruler becomes a likely consequence. The Visconti family of Milan were an early example; Matteo Visconti (d. 1322) was mayor from 1287 to 1322, his son succeeded him, and the post was officially declared hereditary in 1349. Other cities followed suit. The most famous example was the Medici family of Florence, who gained control of the city in 1434 under Cosimo de' Medici (d. 1464); the role was only officially made hereditary in 1532. Venice was a notable exception to this trend, preserving a self-perpetuating oligarchy all the way down to the 18th century. The Italian city-states were some of the most prosperous and populous cities in Europe: Milan had 200,000 citizens, and Florence and Venice over 100,000. Their culture was independent-minded, sophisticated and commercialised, as well as dazzlingly cosmopolitan; merchants from as far away as Armenia, Greece, Germany, and the Muslim world could all be seen mingling with the locals. Groups persecuted elsewhere in Europe such as the Jews found refuge and acceptance there. There is a clear parallel between the openness to foreigners and their ideas of the Abbasid Caliphate that helped spur the Islamic Golden Age, and the openness of the Italian city-states which became the cradle for the effervescence of culture of the Renaissance. Eastern Europe In Eastern Europe, enduring national entities were beginning to crystallize. In Russia, the hegemony of Kiev began to wane in the 11th-century for many reasons: her complex rule of succession led to perpetual internal feuds; the Turkish Pecheneg Khanate to the north of the Black and Caspian Seas were a constant menace; and the huge area of the Rus state made centralised control difficult. Power became fragmented among many independent regional princedoms, with the more powerful in the north, Novgorod, Vladimir, and Rostov; at this point in history Moscow was little more than an upstart. Meanwhile, Poland bursts onto the historical record history with unparalleled suddenness under Mieszko I (960-992), as a response to the threat of German expansionism. By the end of his reign, he had consolidated an extensive and powerful realm through alliances and conquest, secured through the structure of European feudalism, and the process to conversion to Roman Catholicism had been started. The kingdom of Hungary emerged from the pagan Magyars who had long menaced imperial Germany. Founded by Stephen I (997-1038), Hungary endured many periods of violent unrest and dynastic struggle, as in any medieval realm. Her territory varied considerably over time; her western boundary remained relatively stable in the face of German expansion, but her eastern and southern borders constantly fluctuated as the fortunes of the Balkan powers waxed and waned. The dominant power in the Balkans was Bulgaria which regained her independence from the Byzantine Empire in 1185. At its zenith, her borders stretched from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. But a hurricane of disasters was about to fall upon Eastern Europe, the Mongols. Life of Genghis Khan The high plateau of Mongolia is unrivalled in history as a region from which successive waves of tribesmen have emerged to prey upon more sedentary neighbours; the original homeland of both Turks and Mongols. The sudden and astonishing expansion of the Mongols from their homeland can be attributed to the military and political genius of one man; born Temujin but known to history as Genghis Khan '(d. 1227). By his death, he would be the greatest conqueror the world had ever known; conquering more than twice as much land as Alexander the Great, and more in 25 years that the Romans achieved in 400. When Temujin was born in about 1167, the Mongols were a loose confederation of dozens of pastoral nomadic clans migrating with their flocks across the high plateau according to climate. They had long demanded the attention of Chinese emperors. The Mongols seemed to have been bred for mounted warfare. With the stirrup now a standard part of cavalry equipment, the agility of the horsemen was greater than ever. They could manoeuvre a galloping horse using only their legs, leaving their hands free to release a hail of arrows and wheeling away again. Chinese emperors invariably followed the policy of encouraging the incessant disputes among the tribes, to keep them distracted by their own battles and thereby away from China; in the mid-12th century, this same divide-and-rule policy was followed by the foreign Jin dynasty that occupied northern China, and coexisted with the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The Mongols were forever moving towards centralised rule, and then relapsing into anarchy again. Temujin was born into a clan with a history of rule; his great-grandfather Khabul Khan (d. 1146) was for a time acknowledged as Khan of all the Mongols. When the boy was about eight, his father, the chieftain of his clan, was poisoned in a feud. Too young to become chief himself and too dangerous as a potential usurper, Temujin, his mother, and his five brothers was cast-out by the clan. The family lived in poverty for many years, but gradually Temujin gained a reputation as a warrior. He gained a growing group of followers, through a combination of prestige associated with the royal clan, sheer force of personality, and not shortage of ruthlessness. He killed his own elder half-brother to first become head of the family. He spent years rescuing his first wife when she was kidnapped by a rival clan; a practice common among the Mongols. He was at one stage captured and briefly enslaved by his former clan but managed to escape. Finally with a force of his own, Temujin began his rise to power through warfare and alliances. It is a measure of the task that it took him twenty-five years to win a position of power among his own people. His success was based on many factors, not least military genius and merciless brutality. Temujin introduced many innovative ways of organising his army: he coordinated his rigidly disciplined forces with a sophisticated signaling system of smoke, drums, and flags; maintained well-organised supply and communication lines with staging posts that allowed a rider to travel more than 200 miles in a day, and also had trained pigeons for the purpose; employed an extensive spy network to understand his enemy; adapted quickly to new technologies; and going against custom promoted and rewarded his people on loyalty and merit, rather than family ties. When an enemy clan was defeated, the entire leadership was executed, often by boiling alive, and its members integrated into his own following. This was taken to the extreme with his final enemy, the formidable Tatars, where every male taller than the axle of a wagon wheel was killed. This ruthlessness was not mere wanton cruelty, the policy of leaving no enemy in his wake would serve him well throughout his life. By 1206, Temujin had vanquished all his rivals, including his earliest ally and former friend Jamuka. That year, at the age of forty, he called a meeting of representatives from every part of Mongolia, and was acknowledged as Genghis Khan (1206-27), which roughly translates to “''Universal Ruler". Having united the steppe tribes, Genghis Khan suppress the traditional causes of inter-tribal warfare: he abolished inherited titles; forbade the enslavement of any Mongol and the kidnapping of women; and made livestock theft punishable by death. He also adopted a writing system to the Mongol language, the most famous work being "The Secret History of the Mongols" written shortly after his death. The Mongol nation that now come into being was above all organised for war. There are many similarities between the Arab Muslim conquests of the 8th and 9th centuries, and the Mongol conquests of the 13th century. Both were largely unplanned and simply rolled outwards as success bred success. It began with raids on northern China, because in the process of uniting the Mongols, Genghis Khan had promised his followers plunder in the future, and because China had long meddled in Mongol internal affairs. In 1207, he led his armies against the kingdom of Xi Xia, the foreign dynasty to the north-west of Song Dynasty (960-1234), and after two years forced it into submission. In 1211, the Mongol armies struck the Jin Dynasty, to the north-east, and four years later besieged and captured the capital of Beijing. The Mongols with a population of about one million people, had now conquered China north of the Yellow River with a population of perhaps 50 million; many native Han Chinese had defected to the Mongols against the foreign Xi Xia and Jin. At this stage, the Mongol forces still consisted almost entirely of cavalrymen. They defeated armies with nimble and sophisticated attacks, with feigned retreats one of their signature tactics. They besieged cities with simple tactics such as ravaging the countryside in order to flood them with refugees. The Mongols were then remarkably tolerant rulers, promising peace and protection, commerce and prosperity, low taxation and freedom of religion. The Mongols themselves were Shamanists, believing in nature spirits intrinsically linked to the land, thus had no interest in conversion. Genghis Khan's followers would include Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and other faiths. Meanwhile, they were remarkably adaptable, and before long were able to undertake the siege of large cities using technologies developed by their subject peoples; catapults, trebuchets, ladders, siege-towers, burning oil, and even gunpowder. In 1219, Genghis Khan began the conquest of the Khwarezm Sultanate of Central Asia, when war was provoked by an attack on a merchant caravan under Mongol protection. It was in this war that the Mongols truly earned their reputation for savagery and terror. For towns the choice was simple, fight or surrender. Those who decided to bravely meet the Mongols in battle, could perhaps receive a measure of mercy; the leaders were of course executed, but the rest encouraged to join with the Mongols against the world. Those who resorted to treachery or forced the Mongols to besiege the city, could expect no such mercy; all the inhabitants were herded outside and massacred for public display, with only skilled workers such as engineers, carpenters, and metalworkers spared. Most historians estimate the numbers killed in the millions. Terror stalked ahead of a Mongol horde like a psychological weapon. Usually cities needed no persuasion to freely open their gates. After annihilating the Khwarezm Sultanate and plundering cities as far away as Persia and southern Russia, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia in 1225, having conquered a huge swath of territory from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea. However, he didn’t rest long before turning his attention back to northern China, where the Xi Xia were in open revolt. In early 1227 a horse threw him to the ground, causing internal injuries. He pressed on with the campaign, but his health never recovered, and died in August 1227, just before the Xi Xia were crushed for a second time. Genghis Khan had conquered more than twice as much land as any other person in history. Mongolian Conquests Genghis Khan had chosen his successor, his second son Ogedai, with great care, and ensured that his four other surviving sons would obey him; this was confirmed two years later by a great Mongol assembly. '''Ogedai Khan (1229-41) inherited an army and a state in full vigour, and would both extend the conquest, and forge it into an empire. His formidable father had spent his entire life on campaign, but Ogedai preferred to direct several operations simultaneously from his splendid new capital of Karakorum. William of Rubruck (d. 1293), a Flemish missionary and explorer who reached Karakorum in 1253, described a city surrounded by city-walls, with a splendid palace, stone buildings, and many markets, as well as 12 Buddhist temples, 2 Muslim mosques and 1 Christian church, another indication of the tolerance of the Mongols for all religions. Meanwhile, the Mongols continued to make inroads in China, conquering Korea in 1238. Ogedai did soften the Mongol military policy somewhat, recognising the wealth and skills of the Chinese people. This decision gained the Mongols both access to the Chinese weapons that they would need to eventually conquer the Song Dynasty, and gain them knowledge of governmental techniques so they could be rulers as well as conquerors. In the western part of his empire, Ögödei sent Mongol armies into Russia from 1235. The independent Rus regional principalities were ill-equipped to resist; city after city was sacked or capitulated including Kiev in December 1240. The Mongols, or the Golden Horde as they were known, would dominate the region for the next two centuries; Russia only re-emerged from the Mongol yoke in the late 14th century. The Mongols went further, sweeping into Eastern Europe, where they virtually annihilated a joint German and Polish army at the Battle of Legnica (April 1241), and that same month an even larger Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohi (April 1241). Fortunately, Europe was ultimately saved from sharing the fate of Russia, not through force of arms, but through the fortunate timing of the death of Ogedai Khan, which prompted the Mongols to withdraw. In the generation of Genghis Khan's grandsons (Ogedai, Güyük, and Möngke), the Mongol armies little more than nibbled at the richer regions of China, Persia and the Middle East. It was during the reign of Kublai Khan (1260-94) that Mongol power reached its zenith. After a struggle with his brother for the title of Khan, Kublai was free by 1264 to turn his full attention to conquering Song China. As a signal of his ambitions, he moved his capital to Beijing and announcing a Chinese name for his dynasty; the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The first step was the five year siege of the key fortress of Xiangyang, blocking the access to the Yangtze River, which finally fell in 1273. Afterward city after city surrendered to the Mongols, or fell after a brief siege, until the Song capital of Hangzhou fell in 1276. Three years later, the last Song emperor committed suicide, having realised that all was lost. Kublai Khan was determined not to be seen as an outsider in China. He administered the country through the Confusion bureaucracy, with the only difference being the employment notably more foreigners, including a certain Venetian explorer called Marco Polo (d. 1324), the most famous of many Europeans to travel the Silk Road from Europe to China; Il Milione (1300) which documents his experience contains many exaggerations and some curious omissions which probably indicates that some was based on hearsay. With all of China in Mongol hands, their conquests in the east had reached their effective limit, although Kublai Khan did make two costly attempts to invade Japan that both failed. In the western part of his empire, the Muslim world had long attempted to come to terms with the Mongols, from 1241 paying a hefty annual tribute and sending envoys to the coronation of the Khans. Neverthelss, from 1256 the Mongols were determined to establish firm authority over the Middle East. Persia had been terrorised in recent decades by the Nizari Ismailis, a secretive Shi'a sect hostile to the Sunni dominance of the region; known in the West as the Assassins. But the extremist sect met its match in the Mongols. One by one their mountain fortresses were taken, including the supposedly impregnable Alamut. Soon the Mongol horde was pushing into the even richer lands at the centre of the Islamic world. In early 1258, they were at the walls of Baghdad. The Abbasid Caliph believed that the great city could not fall to these barbarous invaders and refused to surrender. The siege lasted just 12 days, and the week-long massacre that followed saw several hundred thousand inhabitants lose their lives; the Caliph himself is said to have been kicked to death, bringing an end to the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258). The next year, the Mongols took Aleppo and Damascus, and now the coastal route south to Egypt seemed open to them. But at the Battle of Ayn Jalut (1260), the Mongols were decisively defeated by the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, in the first setback suffered by the family of Genghis Khan in their remorseless half century of conquest. The battle proved a turning point in world history, defining for the first time the limits of the Mongol Empire; Palestine and Syria were preserved for the Mameluke Dynasty, and Mesopotamia and Persia remained within the Mongol world. Another effect of the Mongol invasion of the Middle East, was that it took some pressure off the remnants of the Byzantine Empire which clung on in the city of Nicaea. Constantinople had been captured by the Crusaders in 1202. In 1261, less than a thousand Byzantine troops were scouting near their home city, where they found the entire Crusader garrison away on a raid. Entering via a secret passage, they flung the few remaining guards from the city walls, and sealed the gates again. The Byzantine Empire would endure in Constantinople another two centuries, but the heart had gone out of it. They would remain isolated, weak, and ultimately helpless before the rise of the Ottoman Turks. By the mid-13th-century the Mongol Empire stretched from Eastern Europe to the coast of China, and north into Siberia. Never in the history of the Silk Road had there been such stability, with the Mongols policing the whole route; an enforced Pax Mongolica. The Mongols always valued trade. Genghis Khan had used foreign merchants as a spy network even before uniting the Mongols. Now there was a Mongol Empire, merchants were encouraged because they could be taxed. Merchants would always be strong supporters of the Mongol regime; if a merchant was attacked by bandits within the empire, all losses were repaid from the imperial treasury. East and West were connected as never before, allowing the free exchange of commodities, ideologies, and technologies; notably gunpowder. In fact the Mongols probably contributed to the ease with which the Black Death spread to Europe. Although the Mongols were conquerors of unparalleled skill, they were in all other respects a primitive people. Kubilai Khan was the last great Khans, and even in his time, his authority in the west was little more than nominal. When he died in 1294, the Mongol Empire fragmented and increasing assimilate to local customs. The Il-khanate (1256–1335) centred in Persia adopted Islam as a state religion in 1295, until it disintegrated with the rise of the Ottoman Turks. The Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) was decidedly Chinese in style, until it was overthrown by the native Ming Dynasty; Ming incursions into Mongolia would even eventually ended Mongol unity. The Golden Horde of Russia was defeated by a Muscow-led alliance in 1380. The Mongol Empire, at its height the largest contiguous empire in history, would dwindle leaving little legacy in its wake. Category:Historical Periods